Apple Testing 'Related' Suggestions on App Store

Some iOS 7 users searching for the latest and greatest mobile apps may have noticed a new suggestion bar.

Some iOS 7 users searching for the latest and greatest mobile apps may have noticed a new suggestion bar that highlights related apps.

The addition was first discovered by developer Olga Osadcha. "Just noticed 'Related' search suggestions in App Store," she tweeted on Monday. "Has it always been there?"

Apple has not made any announcements, but it could be a way to showcase apps that don't make it to the front page of the App Store. "What's interesting," Osadcha said, "is that if you tap on one of the suggestions it leads to other related suggestions, thus producing more and more keywords."

Even misspellings could lead to discovery. "For example I've never thought of 'calander planner,'" she wrote. "I didn't misspell it. That's how people search according to this new 'Related' feature."

Apple did not immediately respond to PCMag's request for comment. The feature did not show up when searching on an iPhone 5 or iPad running iOS 7 in the PCMag Lab. But it's probably a rather quiet test; as Osadcha noted, "it disappeared for me once. Relaunched @AppStore app and it's back again."

Cupertino tweaked its mobile App Store last week to include the Indie Game Showcase section, which turns the spotlight on independent game developers. It's unclear whether this new app search testing is related.

Stephanie began as a PCMag reporter in May 2012. She moved to New York City from Frederick, Md., where she worked for four years as a multimedia reporter at the second-largest daily newspaper in Maryland. She interned at Baltimore magazine and graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (in the town of Indiana, in the state of Pennsylvania) with a degree in journalism and mass communications.
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